And a piss poor time to be wasting energy and money too as it turned out. Instead of focusing on how we can best deal with the current financial turmoil in the US and how it might effect Canada, we were busy farting around with a federal election, just because Stephen Harper and the Conservatives thought they just might have a chance of getting a majority government if they called it right now. Never mind that they broke their very own new election law designed supposedly to prevent just this sort of partisan opportunism, this was at last a chance for Harper to unleash his own special brand of ultra conservatism on Canadians with no holds barred. He just couldn’t resist the temptation.
Of course, Harper claimed that he called the election because he couldn’t accomplish anything with a minority government and he needed a stronger mandate from the Canadian people to get stuff done. But then when he was asked if he thought the Conservatives were likely to win a majority this time around, he said no. Clearly this explanation makes no sense at all. Now while I’ve always believed Stephen Harper is rather simple, I don’t believe he’s that simple. I believe he thought the time was right to capitalize on Stephan Dion’s unpopularity with the hope of winning a majority. And it seemed perfectly fine to Harper that you (the Canadian taxpayer) should finance his little power play.
Let’s not forget that Harper loves to talk about fiscal responsibility, government accountability and how the taxpayers should ultimately call the shots on how their money is spent. This cynical move on his part proves once again, that this kind of talk is nothing more than that—talk. This is yet another reason to make sure that this man and his party never secures a majority government. (PS. The kitty may be cuddly and innocent Steve, but you're not)
